Wasted power

Gordon Brown’s “passionate speech” urging people to vote Labour (your report, 6 May) would have had more credibility had he chosen to fight the SNP by standing for re-election himself.

Instead, at the age of 64, he has quit democratic politics presumably to spend more time addressing foreign businessmen for large sums of money, taking on consultancy and attending global gatherings of doubtful utility.

Brown is like a general who has left the battlefield at the moment of maximum danger, and history will remember him not just for losing the 2010 election but for helping Labour loose the Scottish one by his failure to stand and fight his corner.

To lose the British premiership is a misfortune, but to lose Scotland is gross negligence.